Death By WhatsApp: How a Video Shot in Pakistan Led to Death of 30 People in India

In the original video, the two men actually return to leave the boy from where they had kidnapped him. And then, one of them holds a placard saying, “It takes only a moment to kidnap a child from the streets of Karachi”.

Illustration by Mir Suhail/News18.com

Loading...

New Delhi: A video clip of two bike-borne men snatching a child from his parents has been doing rounds on social media, ‘instigating’ certain groups to lynch nearly 30 people. But what they do not know is — the video has more to it than what they have seen.

In the original video, the two men actually return to leave the boy from where they had kidnapped him. And then, one of them holds a placard saying, “It takes only a moment to kidnap a child from the streets of Karachi”.

Karachi? Yes, you read that right. The video that has gone viral in India was shot by a Karachi-based NGO Roshni Helpline in 2016. The clipping also has a text, which says, “Every year, over 3,000 children go missing in Karachi, Pakistan. Keep an eye on your child.”

The NGO, which works for missing children, collaborated with advertising firm Spectrum Y&R two years ago to highlight the issue. One of the aspects of the campaign was a video to raise awareness about child safety and security.

“The clip used in the Whatsapp messages in India has been edited to remove the context and messaging. It shows CCTV footage of a child being snatched by two men on a motorbike. What it hides (which is in the original video) is the two men returning to the spot and placing the child back. One of the men then holds up a sign that reads — it takes only a moment to kidnap a child from the streets of Karachi,” a joint spokesperson for Roshni and Spectrum told News18.

It was created to address parents and caretakers, raising awareness on how quickly children can be taken, and the need for more care in safeguarding children, he added.

The organisations only got to know of the misuse of their video from media reports. They were appalled when they found out that their awareness video was edited to spread rumour that led to death of nearly 30 people in India.

The original video, in full, was released in 2016 on social media and was shared over 6 million times on Facebook.

The spokesperson said that it had received widespread media coverage, bringing attention to the problem of missing children.

Asking the public to be vigilant, both Spectrum and Roshni feel that people need to follow the norms of verifying content appearing on social media.

“The original Roshni Helpline video was edited and used for malicious purposes without its original context or meaning. This could be done with any piece of content available online, including any piece of television, sound-clip or image, which is almost impossible to prevent. What we can do is raise awareness that not everything that people see on social media is reliable and should be taken at face value,” the spokesperson told News18, adding that it was imperative to find those responsible for misusing the content and bringing them to justice.

“We also don't want the abuse of this video to detract from the very serious issue of missing children in India or Pakistan. Children are the future of a peaceful life between our great nations and it is reprehensible that this video has been used to create chaos and sow distrust in the public,” the joint representative said.

Catch the biggest newsmakers and the biggest newsbreaks on CNN-News18, the only news destination. Keep watching CNN-News18 at just 50 paise per month. Contact your cable/DTH operator now!